As some of my family drives cross-country this year they will be visiting many Mormon historic sites. I wish I could go with them. I’ve been to sites like Kirtland, Nauvoo, and Winter Quarters many times but it has been years since I’ve gone.
When I went those times in the past I remember certain aspects vividly: walking the cemetery at Winter Quarters, standing in a hot, small room where the tour guide said in reverent tones that the Father had visited (I think this is the upstairs room at the Whitney Store in Kirtland), walking around the large rectangular depression where the Nauvoo Temple had once stood (and now stands again), walking through the Kirtland Temple and pondering the oddness of female priesthood in the RLDS Church (more on that below), visiting family at the Johnson Farm, and walking through the peaceful Sacred Grove.
The stories that were told were always interesting but I had no real clue of the full narrative that strung these places together. I knew that Joseph Smith had been called as a Prophet in Palmyra and that there was a lot of persecution. The names “Kirtland” and “Nauvoo” stood out as part of the story but I really didn’t know what was important about them. Each stop featured a tour guide who told stories, and, to me, that’s exactly what they were: stories. I had no clue, no full-on connection to the people and events that were discussed.
It’s difficult to imagine angry mobs and mud-soaked nights when you’re standing in the middle of the summer heat watching the green trees through the wavy windows of an old building. I remember a few exceptions to that disconnection (most especially in the Sacred Grove), but that’s how I felt for much of it. After visiting the cemetery at Winter Quarters we also visited the Far West temple lot (a fenced-in plot of land with some class-covered pits showing some of the cornerstones) – I couldn’t have told you really what the relationship between those two sites was.
So, both in honor of my family’s previous attempts to educate me in my religious cultural history and also in jealousy of my not being able to attend with them this time, I will be attempting to “follow” my family’s trip cross-country on my blog here. As they approach a location in Mormon history I’ll try and put together a blog post giving some basic info about the place, and hopefully some interetsing hard-to-find info or recent scholarship about the site. I don’t know if they’ll be following along or not, but in this way I’ll be able to participate in some small way with them.
I’ll also use these posts to discuss many of the myths and legends (defined by me as straight-out-never-happends and possibly-true-possibly-falses) about the areas they visit. I know I’ll spend a little time detailing some of the history and practices of the Community of Christ (formerly known as the Reorganized Church of Latter Day Saints), helped by some awesome existing information. I also expect that I’ll devote a little bit of time to some of the historiographal debates and controversies that still exist about some areas (e.g., the Nauvoo Masonic Hall).
Anyways, I hope you’ll all enjoy the ride. This will be in a few weeks, but I figured I’d announce it now.